CXOs from Multiple Industries Identify Strategies to Navigate Corona

Mindtree and consulting and research firm Everest Group collaborated with leading CXOs from multiple industries through a series of round tables—‘Possibilities Forums’ - to identify and share best practices to most effectively navigate business challenges created by Corona. Digital resiliency and business continuity emerged as the top areas for technology investments to survive and thrive.

Companies are increasingly investing in tools and strategies to emerge from the pandemic as more resilient businesses, while accelerating their digital and cloud adoption initiatives.  During the Corona crisis businesses across various industries have realized a measurable return on investment in these digital and modernization efforts.

“One of the lessons learned from the Corona crisis is that many organisations did not pivot toward digital transformation opportunities fast enough,” said Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO, Everest Group. “These organisations realise the importance of implementing digital resiliency plans and are re-assessing their digital transformation pathways. This will enable them to emerge more resilient.”

The round tables revealed three imperatives:

• Develop sustainable funding models Balancing digital technology investments with fiscal prudence, given the global business disruption from the pandemic, is key. Flattening the cost increases of technology initiatives and preserving cash will help IT organisations find sustainable funding for digital projects.
• Evolve sales and distribution models   Social distancing requirements have changed customer expectations around experiences. Enabling zero-touch, self-service kiosks or contactless experiences will help re-establish customer trust. Providing omni-channel experiences strengthened by physical and digital models for sales and delivery is a new technology-led initiative.
• Rethink talent and workforce management models to drive productivity   Enterprises are adopting more distributed agile methodologies to make technology teams be more productive and drive scalable strategic transformation initiatives.

“The Corona crisis has accelerated a massive paradigm shift in the way services get sourced, consumed and governed,” said Venu Lambu, President, Global Markets, Mindtree. “Enterprises are increasingly moving away from on-premises implementation of technologies toward cloud and as-a-service, automation and digitizing their core systems. With our deep roots in digital and cloud technologies, Mindtree is well-positioned to be at the forefront of these new models of service consumption and engagement.”

The invitation-only, virtual Possibilities Forums were moderated by Everest Group and hosted by Mindtree.  Enterprise executives from the travel, consumer packaged goods, transportation, insurance, hospitality, financial services, retail, and manufacturing participated in the forum.